I do thank the Lord for the privilege
of coming here and see you dear brothers
and sisters again.
Will you please turn to the gospel according
to Matthew.
Matthew chapter 5, we'll read from verse 1
through verse 12.
Matthew chapter 5 verse 1.
But seeing the crowds, he that is our
Lord Jesus, went up into the mountain, and
having sat down, his disciples came to him.
And having opened his mouth, he taught them,
saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.
Blessed they that mourn, for they shall be
comforted.
Blessed the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth.
Blessed they who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled.
Blessed the merciful, for they shall find mercy.
Blessed the pure in heart, for they shall
see God.
Blessed the peacemakers, for they shall be called
sons of God.
Blessed they who are persecuted on account of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of the
heavens.
Blessed are ye when they shall reproach and
persecute you, and say every wicked thing against
you, lying for my sake.
Rejoice and exult, for your reward is great
in the heavens, for thus have they persecuted
the prophets who were before you.
And the same chapter, the last verse.
Verse 48.
Be ye therefore perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect.
Lately, the Lord has put upon my heart
on this matter of the kingdom of God.
And I think it is the right time
that we should be reminded of the kingdom
of God.
Because our Lord Jesus said, the great tidings
of the kingdom of the heavens must be
preached through all the inhabitants of the earth.
For a witness to the nations, and then
the end will come.
So brothers and sisters, I do feel in
my heart that before the return of our
Lord Jesus, before the end comes, this gospel
of the kingdom must be re-emphasized.
In a sense, we find that in the
early church, this is the gospel that they
preached.
But unfortunately you find, as you look back
through the centuries, you find that the gospel
of the kingdom has not been preached as
it should.
As a matter of fact, you find among
God's people, there are lots of God's children
who are really saved.
They do not even know what the kingdom
of God is.
And because of this, you find there is
such a weakness in the testimony of the
church to the world.
So I feel very deeply in my heart
that this gospel of the kingdom of the
heavens must be emphasized more and more as
we are approaching the end.
What is salvation?
We think of salvation in terms of having
our sins forgiven, receiving eternal life, going to
heaven.
And thank God it is.
It is great that our sins could be
forgiven, that we will have eternal life, even
the very life of God.
And it is great that one day we
will go home, to our eternal home, heaven.
This is the gospel.
But the gospel is more than that.
You find in Colossians chapter 1 verse 13,
it says that God has delivered us out
of the authority of darkness and has translated
us into the kingdom of the Son of
God's love.
You know, salvation means not only to have
our sins forgiven and be saved, but salvation
is being delivered out of the power of
darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's
Son, the Son of God's love.
In other words, you find it is a
change of position, a change of status, a
change of environment, a change of allegiance.
That is salvation.
Before we were saved, not only we have
sinned greatly, we were dead in sins and
transgressions, but we have to remember that before
we were saved, we were actually in the
kingdom of darkness.
The kingdom of this world is the kingdom
of darkness.
Satan, the adversary of God, is the ruler,
the prince of this world.
And he uses darkness to rule over the
people.
In other words, before we were saved, we
were in a kingdom, a spiritual kingdom.
But that kingdom is the kingdom of darkness.
We were kept in the dark.
The God of this world has blinded our
eyes.
We do not know the right from the
wrong.
We thought we knew, but we were completely
in darkness.
We were groping in darkness.
We were under the authority of darkness.
That was Satan's tactic, to put us in
darkness, that we could not see light.
But thank God one day, our Lord Jesus
came into this world.
He defeated Satan on Calvary's cross.
And he has delivered us out of the
authority of darkness.
And has translated us into his own kingdom.
The kingdom of love.
The kingdom of light.
You know, this is a tremendous thing that
happened to our life.
In other words, once we were in one
kingdom, but now, when we believe in the
Lord Jesus, we have been translated into another
kingdom.
We no longer belong to the kingdom of
this world.
We no longer are under the authority of
darkness.
Thank God we are in the kingdom of
God's Son.
The kingdom of love.
Now that is where we are today.
You remember the story of the children of
Israel.
They were slaves in Egypt.
They served Pharaoh.
They were not even allowed to live.
They were put into labor, slave labor.
They were in the kingdom of Egypt, under
Pharaoh.
But thank God in his mercy, he saved
them.
Now the children of Israel were saved from
death by the Paschal Lamb.
That day, the Passover day.
Because of the land slain, with the blood
of the Dwarf, the children of Israel were
saved.
Now that was the beginning.
But that was not the end.
In other words, God saved them from death.
But God did not leave them in Egypt.
We find that immediately after they were saved
from death, that night, they marched out of
Egypt.
God delivered them out of Egypt when they
crossed the Red Sea.
They were completely out of the authority of
Pharaoh.
And now they belong to another kingdom.
You know God brought these people to Mount
Sinai.
And there the Lord began to reveal his
mind to them.
And he said, if you keep my covenant,
if you keep my commandments, you will be
a kingdom of peace.
So here you find the children of Israel,
they were not just being saved from death.
They actually were taken out of one kingdom
and was made to be another kingdom.
To be a kingdom of priests unto God.
To serve God.
Now that was what happened to the children
of Israel.
So in a very real sense, we find
that we who are saved by the grace
of God, throw the blood on the land.
The Lord did not leave us there in
the kingdom of darkness.
The Lord had actually translated us into the
kingdom of his own Son, of the beloved
Son.
So out of one kingdom we have been
translated into another kingdom.
What we need to understand is, where are
we today?
What is our position today?
Now it is true, we are still in
this world.
You remember our Lord Jesus in John 17,
in his prayer?
He mentioned in that prayer, in verse 6,
I think, he said, these people are being
called out of the world.
Formerly we were in the world, but he
has called us out of the world.
And yet in verse 11 he says, they
are still in the world.
Out of the world, and yet physically we
are still in this world.
But then in verse 14 he said, yet
they are not of the world.
So this is where we are.
God has called us out of the world.
We do not belong to this world anymore.
But physically, bodily, we are still in the
world.
Now even though bodily we are still in
the world, yet we are not of the
world.
That's where we are.
I'm afraid lots of believers, they still do
not know where they are, because they judge
by the physical things.
They feel that, well, we are still in
this world.
And they forget that even though they are
in this world, they are not of this
world.
They belong to another kingdom.
We are children of the kingdom of God.
Let me use an illustration.
You know, during the Roman Empire, they conquered
the world that they knew at that time.
Now after they conquered all these different countries,
they set up colonies.
In different parts of the world, they have
their colonies.
Now these colonies were formed in different ways.
Some colonies were formed actually by those retired
soldiers, Roman legions.
And after they retired, they settled down with
their family in a foreign place.
And these men became the inhabitants of a
Roman colony.
And they served as an outpost for the
Roman Empire.
Or in other ways, sometimes they conquered some
countries, and they set up a few cities
as Roman colonies.
And all those who lived in those cities
were given the privilege of being Roman citizens.
Now for instance, Paul of Tarsus.
Now Tarsus was a Roman colony.
And because he was born in that Roman
colony, so even though he was born of
the Hebrews, he had a Roman citizenship.
So in different ways you find they have
colonies all over the world.
Now in these Roman colonies, they were under
the direct government of Rome.
They were not under any governors of any
Roman province, Roman state.
But they belong directly to Rome.
And in these colonies, the people dressed as
Romans.
Their lifestyle was Roman.
And the law that ruled over them was
Roman law.
In other words, you find they were different
from the people around them.
They were colonies.
They do not belong to the neighboring countries
or the neighboring cities.
They belong directly to Rome.
And everything there was Roman.
And that was the way that the Roman
Empire ruled the whole territory.
Now that was just an illustration.
What I want to say is this.
This is exactly what our Lord Jesus did.
You know this world was usurped by Satan.
This world does not belong to him, but
he got it through man.
God actually gave this earth to man to
have dominion over the whole earth.
But somehow you find man was deceived and
giving up that rulership.
So Satan is the ruler of this world.
And he has been ruling this world for
thousands of years.
But one day there was an invasion from
heaven.
And that invasion was in the person of
our Lord Jesus.
You know incarnation is a tremendous event.
Now incarnation, you can view incarnation from various
viewpoints.
And one of the viewpoints of incarnation is
heaven invaded the earth.
Here was one who belonged to heaven.
And he came upon this earth.
Now why did he came to this earth?
If you read the gospel according to Matthew,
you will find he was born to be
king.
That was why he was born.
He was born to be king.
He came to set up his kingdom upon
this earth.
But unfortunately you will find when he was
born there was a king of the Jews.
Herod, the Idunian.
Not even an Israelite.
And he was the usurper.
He was king on the throne.
But here you will find the real king
was born.
And in a sense you will find Herod
is a front of Satan.
Because Satan actually was the ruler of this
world.
Not by legal rights, but by cheating, by
deception.
But here you will find the Lord was
born.
He was born to be king.
And he came into a hostile world.
When he was born there was no room
for him.
And after he was born Herod wanted to
murder him.
He came to set up his kingdom upon
this earth.
And in a sense you will find that
there could be no neutral ground.
After he came upon this earth you either
receive him or you oppose him.
There is no neutral ground.
You can be with him.
And those who accepted him he translated out
of this world into his own kingdom.
And after his death and resurrection and ascension
on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit
came down and 120 disciples were baptized into
one body.
That was the first colony of heaven upon
the earth.
So you see what the Lord is doing?
He came first, invaded the enemy's land, he
destroyed the enemy on Calvary's cross and now
he sent his Holy Spirit to come upon
those who believe in him and started to
set up his heavenly colonies.
These are his kingdom.
The kingdom of the son of God's love.
He first set it up in Jerusalem and
it began to spread to all Judea.
It began to spread into Samaria and it
has been and it is still spreading to
the end of the earth.
In other words here and there throughout the
enemy's land as it were you find he
set up his colonies.
So we are his colonies.
And we who are in these colonies we
are who are in the kingdom of God's
love brothers and sisters.
We are no longer under the rule of
the ruler of this earth.
We are directly ruled by the king who
is in heaven.
Our law is different.
We are governed by a different law.
Our lifestyle is different.
We speak a different language.
Everything is different.
We belong to the kingdom of the heavens.
That is where we are today.
Are we there?
Why is it that the scripture says we
are strangers and sojourners?
If we belong to this world then we
are no strangers.
We are not passers-by.
But in 1 Peter you find that we
are strangers and sojourners.
Why?
Because he has delivered us out of the
power of darkness and has translated us into
the kingdom of his own son of love.
And it is because of this we are
strangers to this world.
Now are we strangers?
Are we sojourners?
Are we just passing through?
Or do we being rooted and grounded into
this earth?
Now where are we?
So the thing that concerns me deeply is,
do we know that we belong to another
kingdom?
And if we do, are we living today
in that kingdom?
Now for the sake of some who are
not familiar with the kingdom of God or
the kingdom of the heavens, probably I need
to explain a little bit more.
In one sense the kingdom of God is
from eternity to eternity.
Wherever God rules, there is his kingdom.
And of course his dominion is over all,
from generation to generation.
So in one sense, in the broad sense,
the kingdom of God is from eternity to
eternity.
But there is a stricter sense of the
kingdom.
And the stricter sense is, not only wherever
God rules, and of course God rules and
overrules, you know, Satan can set up his
own kingdom outside of the kingdom of God
as it were, but he is not outside
of the authority of God.
But so in a stricter sense, what is
the kingdom of God?
What is the kingdom of God's Son?
What is the kingdom of the heavens?
It is a domain of people who give
him willing, voluntary obedience and submission, so that
he can work in their lives to build
his own character into them, that they may
express him in this world.
Now that is the kingdom.
The kingdom is not only that God rules
over all, but the kingdom is, there is
a people who allowed him to do that
work of building his own character into them,
that they may express him.
And glorify him.
Now that is the kingdom.
In one sense, one day that kingdom will
come.
You remember our Lord Jesus taught us to
pray, thy kingdom come.
Now when he teaches us to pray, thy
kingdom come, it means that it hasn't come
yet.
It has already come, you don't need to
pray anymore.
So one day that kingdom will have his
public manifestation upon this earth.
In other words, at the second coming of
Christ, we find that the kingdom of this
world will become the kingdom of our God
and of his Christ.
And righteousness shall rule over the whole earth.
And at that time you will find that
there will be nothing that will hurt anyone.
The lion and the lamb will be together.
The whole environment will be changed.
The kingdom of God has come upon this
earth.
And what a day it is.
And we are looking forward to that day
and thank God it is coming very soon.
So in a sense it is still in
the future.
But at the same time we find, even
though thy kingdom come is still in the
future, but that refers only to his public
manifestation.
So far as his spiritual reality is concerned,
it has already come.
But people do not see it.
Only those whose spiritual eyes are open, only
those who have given themselves to the Lord,
they are actually already in the kingdom.
So that's what we are talking about.
He has already translated us into the kingdom
of his son of love.
We are already in that kingdom.
But do we know how to live in
that kingdom?
I think that is the real problem and
the real concern.
So my burden for this time is how
do we live in the kingdom now?
Not in the future, but now.
Or maybe I should add something.
If we do not live in the kingdom
now, when the kingdom of God shall be
publicly manifested upon this earth, you will not
be in that kingdom.
In other words, you will not reign with
Christ for a thousand years.
To reign with Christ for a thousand years
depends upon today, whether we are living in
that kingdom.
Not positionally.
Positionally you are there, but conditionally.
Are we living in the kingdom now?
And that is the only guarantee for the
future, whether you will be reigning with Christ
for a thousand years or not.
So you see how important it is.
You know we are only thinking, well if
I got saved, that's all that needs to
be.
If I can go to heaven.
Now thank God, the gift of God knows
no repentance.
And if you believe in the Lord Jesus,
He has given you eternal life and eternal
life is eternal life.
And you will go to heaven, no doubt
about that.
But brothers and sisters, what about the kingdom?
Before eternity and this age, in the Bible
we find there is an age to come.
And the age to come is the millennium
kingdom, a thousand years.
When the kingdom of the heavens is publicly
manifested upon this earth.
The heavens rule over this earth in a
public way.
For eternity, by believing in the Lord Jesus,
you are given that privilege.
It is the gift of God.
But to be in that kingdom to come,
to reign and rule.
Remember, it is to reign and to rule.
And that is not just something given to
everybody, but only to those who live in
the kingdom today.
And that brings us to Matthew, chapter 5,
chapter 6 and chapter 7, the so-called
Sermon on the Mount.
Now you remember, the Sermon on the Mount
is not spoken to the crowds.
When the Lord Jesus saw the crowds coming
to Him, He ascended to the mountain.
And His disciples came to Him.
And He opened His mouth and taught them.
So in other words, you find the Sermon
on the Mount is not for the crowds.
The Sermon on the Mount is for His
disciples.
Now who are the disciples of our Lord
Jesus?
In a sense, all believers are disciples.
That's what it should be.
But so far as our experience goes, you
find that many are believers, but few are
disciples.
Why?
To be a believer, all you need to
do is to believe Him.
That's all you need to do.
But to be a disciple, you have to
answer His call.
You have to leave all and follow Him.
You have to put yourself under His authority.
You have to be a learner, to learn
of Him.
You have to let Him discipline you, train
you, put you through lessons, many lessons to
learn.
You have to be absolutely obedient to Him
and follow Him.
Wherever He goes, you go.
Now that's a disciple.
So you find many are believers, but few
are disciples.
If you read the Gospels, you find that
the Lord began to call disciples.
He was walking by the Sea of Tiberias,
Galilee, and He saw Peter and Andrew, and
He called them, come and follow Me.
And they left all and followed Him.
And then a little ahead, He saw the
sons of Labadee, and He called them, and
they left all and followed Him.
You find every time one responds to the
call of discipleship is to leave all and
follow Him.
Now, today is not in a physical way,
but in a spiritual way.
You have to leave all and follow Him.
By that it means you have to give
yourself over to Him.
That's the only way He can teach you.
The Lord will not teach a half-hearted
person.
He will only teach those who surrender themselves
completely to Him.
Disciples.
So here you find our Lord Jesus is
showing the disciples what the kingdom is.
In other words, the Lord is telling them,
you belong to another kingdom.
And you better understand the nature of that
kingdom.
And you better know the secret of living
in that kingdom.
And you better know how to live in
that kingdom now.
Now that is the Sermon on the Mount.
The Sermon on the Mount is spiritual, but
most practical.
But it is only for the disciples.
That is the qualification.
And it is not discipleship to people, to
man.
You know, we talk about discipleship, and unfortunately
you find that somehow we were being distracted
and tried to disciple people unto man.
We are disciples to Christ, not to man.
You know, people can be used by God
to help in the discipling, but don't forget
that you are not discipling them to yourself,
but you are discipling them to Christ.
And as God's disciple, it is important to
know where you are.
You are in the kingdom of God's Son.
You are under His authority.
And you better know what is the nature
of that kingdom.
You need to learn the secret of living
in that kingdom.
We are all familiar with the Beatitudes.
I am not going to enter in details.
You find the Lord begins with the Beatitude,
blessed or happy or the poor in spirit.
For theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.
You know, the Lord is trying to show
us what the kingdom is.
The kingdom of God is not in eating
and drinking.
The kingdom of God is an inward character,
qualification, quality.
And in the Beatitude, actually what the Lord
is trying to show us is that is
His character.
And He characterizes the kingdom.
What is His kingdom?
The kingdom is where His character is built
in and expressed.
That is His kingdom.
He said, blessed are the poor in spirit.
Now, who is the poor in spirit?
Have you ever found anyone who is poor
in spirit?
Not poor spirit, but poor in spirit.
We have a lot of people poor in
spirit.
But have you ever found anybody that is
poor in spirit?
In a natural way?
We are all proud people, even though we
have nothing to be proud of.
That is our nature, that self.
That is the very nature of sin.
In the beginning, the archangel, through pride, turned
himself into the adversary of God.
He became the originator of sin.
And brothers and sisters, you find that in
the natural, we are all proud of ourselves.
But the kingdom is only for those who
are poor in spirit.
Because that is what the kingdom character is.
Do we have this kingdom character?
There is only one person upon this earth
who is qualified for this, and that is
our Lord Himself.
He was equal with God, and there was
not something to be proud of.
He had every reason to be proud, rich
in spirit.
But He emptied Himself.
He emptied Himself of all His dignities, all
His glory of honour.
Of course He couldn't empty Himself of His
deity, He couldn't do that.
But aside from that, He emptied Himself of
all the honour and glory that was due
to Him.
Worship, praises, and He came down to take
the form of a born slave.
That's poor in spirit.
Poor in spirit doesn't mean that there is
nothing in you.
It means that He is so rich that
He is able to empty Himself.
You know, we have almost nothing to empty
with.
But He has so much to empty, and
He emptied Himself.
And took up the form.
The form there actually is the same word
as He had the form of God.
He took up the form, the image, the
inner character of a born slave, having no
right whatsoever, and He took upon Himself the
fashion of a man, likeness of a man,
and became obedient even unto death, and that
is the death of the cross.
That is poor in spirit.
That is the kingdom.
And the Lord said, blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
the heavens.
Now how can it be with us?
Now even though we are saved, we are
brothers and sisters, our flesh is still very
much alive.
We are still very proud of ourselves.
If we are not proud of earthly achievement,
probably we are proud of our so-called
spiritual achievements.
We look at our brothers and sisters and
to esteem others more excellent than ourselves, we
say, that will be hypocrisy.
Because you feel you are more excellent.
This is humanly impossible.
Brothers and sisters, one thing we have to
understand.
To live in the kingdom, it is impossible
with man.
As long as you think it is possible
for you to live in the kingdom today,
you are not living in that kingdom.
You have to be brought to a point
to see that it is beyond you.
With man it is impossible, but thank God,
with God all things are possible.
That is the only way to live in
the kingdom.
Now, the cross has to work in our
lives.
We have to be put to death.
We have to deny ourselves, take up the
cross and follow the Lord.
And it is only through the working of
the cross by the power of the Holy
Spirit that we come to an end of
ourselves.
And we begin to realize what a life
that has been given to us.
Brothers and sisters, we do not appreciate the
eternal life.
We think of eternal life as something reserved
for eternity and not for today.
So that is the reason why you find
that we are still living by our own
strength, by our own good intention.
Formerly we used ourselves to serve sin, now
we use ourselves to serve God.
We do not know ourselves.
And we think that we can be poor
in spirit.
Try it.
You know, the more you think you are
poor in spirit, the prouder you are.
Humility is not natural.
I remember when I was young, a young
believer, among us young people, we feel that
we are Christians, we need to be humble.
And the only thing we can do is
to try to walk and with our eyes
looking on the earth, ground, you know, and
back hunched.
That's all we can do.
But the more we are doing that, the
more we feel, well, how spiritual we become.
It is not there.
Where is it?
In the life that God has planted in
you when you believe in the Lord Jesus.
The very life that lived for thirty some
years, two thousand years ago, is the only
life that can live in the kingdom today.
No one else.
Now thank God we have that life.
But the problem is, are we living by
that life?
Or are we still living by the old
life?
And in order not to live by the
old life, well, in a sense, you know,
the old life we have lived for a
number of years, we know its ways, we
are accustomed to it, we have it, it
becomes habit, you know.
When it becomes a habit, you don't need
to think about it, it just happens.
We are used to it.
And unconsciously we are doing the same thing,
we are thinking the same way, we are
saying the same thing, and we are the
same.
And that's the reason why you find we
have to be disciples to Christ.
You find that the Holy Spirit has to
so work in us and applying the cross
into our lives until we come to the
end of ourselves and say, Lord, it is
just impossible for me to live in your
kingdom.
It is beyond me.
You give up.
And then you begin to appreciate the life
of Christ in you.
Because you discover that the life is there.
All you need to do is to live
by that life.
And until it becomes a habit to you,
and when it becomes a habit to you,
a character, a new character is formed.
So you know today we are forming a
new character all the time.
And when you allow the life of Christ
live today, something is built in.
And you let the life of Christ live
again tomorrow, something more is built in.
And as you go on with the Lord,
you find gradually the very character of Christ
begin to develop, to be developed in you.
And when a character is developed, you become
that person.
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Not just poor in spirit once in a
while, but the poor in spirit becomes a
character.
You become a person.
So you are living in the kingdom of
God's Son.
You know we often say, we often quote
the Bible and say, you are the light
of the world, you are the salt of
the world, you are the light of the
earth.
But you know if you read within context,
you find that we are not really light
and salt until we are really disciples.
We really learn of Him.
And let His character build in us.
And then you have that salty taste.
And you have the light that shines.
Now from verse 17 on to the end
of the chapter, the Lord mentioned another thing.
And that is, unless your righteousness exceeds the
righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
cannot enter into the kingdom of the heavens.
Now there is a righteousness that is called
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Now today we look down upon these scribes
and Pharisees because they are hypocrites.
But you know these scribes and Pharisees, they
have a righteousness.
They have a righteousness according to the law.
They have a righteousness according to the traditions
of the fathers.
You find that they have a righteousness that
is in the letters.
In a sense they are moral, they are
ethical, they are legal.
That's their righteousness.
But the Lord said, unless your righteousness exceeds
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you cannot enter into the kingdom of the
heavens.
Now what is the righteousness that exceeds?
Well you'll find the Lord began to use
lots of illustrations.
The righteousness of the Pharisees is they keep
the law, thou shalt not murder.
And they don't murder, they don't kill.
But the righteousness that excels and exceeds is
even you get angry with your brother without
a cause.
Now the righteousness of the Pharisees is do
not commit adultery.
And they don't.
But the righteousness that exceeds is if you
look at a woman and you have the
desire after her, you have already committed adultery.
The righteousness of the Pharisees is do not
swear.
I mean not do not swear, but you
swear, you know, but keep it.
But the Lord said don't swear.
If you say yes, yes, no, no.
The righteousness of the Pharisees is love your
neighbors, but hate your enemies.
Love your neighbors is God's command, but hate
your neighbors is from the rabbis.
But that's their righteousness.
But the Lord said if somebody strike your
right cheek, turn the other cheek.
That's the righteousness that excels.
Now who can do it?
Can we do it?
It is humanly impossible.
Because the requirement is that you may be
perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.
So here you'll find to live in the
kingdom is not by law, but by grace.
By law it is impossible.
By law the best you can do is
to get to the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees.
That's the best you can do.
As a matter of fact many people fail.
But to excel in righteousness, that inward righteousness,
that right with the Lord from the heart,
it is only by the grace of God.
So the Sermon on the Mount is not
law.
The Sermon on the Mount is grace.
Life has been given and the grace of
God is sufficient.
But you do not realize that grace until
you are brought to the end of yourselves.
You know we are like the Apostle Paul.
You remember in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
He had a thorn in his flesh.
That weakened him.
And he felt for the glory of God
that thorn should be removed.
Because what would the people think, thought, if
he was preaching the resurrection, the life of
Christ and there he had that thorn upon
his flesh that weakened him.
There was no testimony.
So he felt he had to appear strong
before the people.
And he wanted for the Lord's sake, not
for his own sake.
And he wanted that to be removed.
But the Lord said, my grace is sufficient
for you.
My power is manifested in your weakness.
And Paul said, I boast in my weakness.
That his power may be perfected in me.
Brothers, this is grace.
We will not appreciate grace.
We do not know how to use grace
until we come to an end.
And then we realize that only grace can
get us through.
We just cannot.
We live by the grace of God and
not by our own wisdom or by our
own strength.
So here you find one thing.
And that is to live in the kingdom
now.
The secret is to live by his life,
by his grace.
So in other words, it is not I.
If we want to live in that kingdom,
here is the secret.
It is an open secret.
But the problem is, to be not I
is not easy.
See, the I is so great, so big.
We have to see that that I was
crucified with Christ.
We have to stand on that truth of
co-crucifixion.
And it is only when we stand on
that ground, we allow Christ lives in us.
And as you do that, you discover you
are living in the kingdom now.
Dear Heavenly Father, we want to thank Thee
because in Thy salvation, Thou has actually delivered
us out of the power of darkness and
has translated us into the kingdom of the
Son of Thy love.
We thank Thee that we are in the
Son of Thy love, but we do acknowledge
that more often we are not living in
that kingdom.
Lord, we do pray that we may be
a people who really give ourselves to Thee,
to be disciples of Thee, to be learners
of Thee.
We do pray that, Thy Holy Spirit, we're
daily working our lives, that we may come
to the point to see that it is
no longer I, it is Christ who lives
in us.
And Lord, we want to live in Thy
kingdom today.
We ask in Thy precious name.
Let's sing number 112.
Why don't we stand?
He gives us more grace when the
burden's broken.
He sends us more strength when we're laid
to rest.
He gives us more
grace when we're laid to rest.